Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 45, no. 1161: June 14, 1890

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June 14, 181tO Record and Guide. 871 'g^ \ ESTfcBUSHED'^W.fcRpHSl^'^ieea. Dr/oTED TO ^^E^L EsmiE. BuiLDif/c A^ci(iTECTUR,E Household Degorahoi*. BJsiflESS aiJd Themes or GeHeiv^^ 1;Jhr,es-i PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Pulflished every Saturday. TELEPHONE, - ■ • _ JOHN 370. Communications should be addressed to C.W. SWEET, 191 Broadway, J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XLV. JUNE 14, 1890. No. 1,161 Tlie Stock Market during the past week has not been all that the bulls might wish, but ib bas boeu all they have had a right to expect. When quotations depend on Congressional legislation on a matter like the silver question, as to which there are so many con^ flicting opinions and iuterests to reconcile, uo one can complain if the days of waiting and suspense are many and the days of advaucng prices few. Tbere are, however, a great many influences at work for higher prices quite apart froaa silver legislation. The railroad earnings show even larger increases than those we have been accustomed to; bank clearings never before aggregated such big figures ; general trade is reported to be active, and a better feeling prevails in tbe irou aud coal mxvkats, >StiII mure important, per¬ baps, from the point of view of permanent effect, is the practical purchase of the Baltimore & Ohio by the Eichmond Terminal, It is not generally realized how far this combining process has gone, and the exhibit made by the Financial Chronicle last week has doubtless surprised miny iuvestors ia railway securities. After an elaborate sur cey Hof the field the Chronicle comes to the con¬ clusion that sixteen leading iuterests and corporations control 111,149 miles of road. And if the 10,867 miles in the hands of the Canadian Pacific and Grand Trunk systems are taken out, over 100,000 mijps w(,uid remain under the direction of fourteen interests. The most important of these interests is the Vanderbilt, w^L'ich owns some 15,6(13 miles; the next is the Gould, with 11,879 miles; the third is the Huntington, with 9,038 miles; a close fourth is the Atchison, with 8,965 miles; tbe Uuion Paciflc follows with 8,047 miles; Richmond Terminal is sixth, with 7,664 miles, and the Penn-ylvania is seventh, with 7,469 miles. The classifieif.tion on analysis may appear arbitrary in some respects, but it is very interesting in showing to what an extent the consoli¬ dation has gone. Tbe most compact and prosperous of all these systems is the Pennsylvania, although it stands only seventh iu respect to mileage. Already, however, a change would have to be made in the table through the acquisition of the Baltimore & Ohio by the Eichmond Terminal. The former corporation controls nearly 1,900 mites, the addition of which to the Richmond Terminal would make it third on the list. How far this process will be con¬ tinued it is impossible to say. It would seem to be the part of w isdom for the mauao'ers of these great systems to turn their attention to simplifying the enormously complex machinery under which the roads are at present worked, and to consolidating and unifying their stock and bonded obligations, ludeed, this process will be almost inevitable, f.r by it great savings can be made both in operating expenses and fixed charges. The railroads at the present time are operated by the best business and organizing talent in the country; theii' position is strengthened every year by these wise amalgamations, and eventually tbey may well be reduced to a simplicity which at preseut seems inconceivable. Governor Hill has met with praise for the way iu which he has disposed of the bills left on his hands, eveu from sources which are iu the habit of treating his actions as uniformly bad. Yet it can be said with .justii-e, after taking a careful survey of the legislative corpses with which bis desk is so plentifully bestrewn, that he has evinced in his vetoes a more careful regard for newspaper opinions than for tbo public good. In the matter of the cable bill he has refused to "stultify " himself in the eyes of certain contempora¬ ries, but he bas consented to stultify the city in respect to its transit interests. Our present street railroads are not only slow in improving theu- motive powers, but they are active in preventing %e building of competitive lines. Thus the legislative season ends with absolutely no assistauce from Albany in this trausit matter—a consammatiou which inures to the benefit of out-of-town property- owners and tbe retailers and manufacturers of shoos. The familiar cry of the "corporations be damned "has been used effectively against the East Eiver Bridge bill and the measure for raising the Harlem River bridges. Indeed, the Governor and the Legislature both have exhibited the greatest care in defeating legislation to enable New Yorkers to get anywhere; they evideatly believe in maintaining what we may call tbe present spatial relations of the metropolis, both as regards the internal connections of the pai'ts and its external .relations to other places. The Governor haa done well to allow the Aqueduct Claims bill to lapse, though, perhaps, we may even come to regret this, in case the coutractors ever recover their claims from tbecity and we are obliged to meet heavy interest charges on the amount of tbe awards. It is, perhaps, also fortunate that he has signed the bill providing for a Commis¬ sioner of Streets iu tbe 23d and 34th "Wards. It is by no means a perfect piece of legislation, as the inhabitants of that section will have reason to discover in time ; but it will give them a far better machinery than they have at present. The memorandum Governor Hill filed with one of the bills he signed calls for more extended comment. Itis perhaps an unusual spectacle, even in these days of tb*; divorce between legislation and common sense, to see an executive officer give^ number of reasons for not signing a bill based on a quarrel rt'itb its essential feat¬ ures, and yet in the end not scruple to sign it, fie has doue what he himself considers to be a foolish act in approving the bill making the Sberiff a, salaried officer. But he ignores his objections because no one else shares them. Tbe Governor eviilently believes with Novalis, that an individual opinion gains a thousandfold in strength if there is one other person who believes in the same way. The reasons, however, which he gives for these misgivings are a suffi¬ cient explanation why they exist solely iu his own mind. Thus, he thinks, the fact thafc tbere has been a marked decrease in the fees received by the Register's and County Clerk's «ffices since they have become salaried—^a decrease that has made them a bur¬ den to the city rather than a source of income to the politicians— to be an indication tbat this change was hasty and ill-advised. But people who do not live in Albany know very well that there is no central relation between the decrease in fees and the change in the method of giving compensation to tbe managers of these offices. If the fees bavo decreased because of the above-mentioned chan